1. Field
The present invention relates to a method for management of a plurality of Communication devices in an access network as described in preamble of claim 1 and an access unit as described in the preamble of claim 1.
2. Description of Related Arts
Such management-method and related device are generally known in the art. The management method, for instance configuration, of communications devices in an Internet Protocol network access network is realised using the Internet Protocol layer for provisioning the layer three connection between a management network element such as configuration server and a to be managed device, required for management purposes.
Such a communications network comprises an Access Unit and an Ethernet, ATM or a MPLS aggregation network, wherein the Access Unit, such as a Digital subscriber line access unit, couples the communications device, such as a Digital subscriber line modem, to the aggregation network. The communications device being coupled to the Access Unit over an ATM connection.
This communication required for the management of the communications devices is based on the Internet Protocol address further referred to as IP-address, for addressing the management application at the communications device.
Currently, the communication required for the management of the communications devices is based on Internet Protocol, where the Internet Protocol addresses of the communication devices are unique addresses.
In some situations however, no unique IP-address is assigned to the communications devices (communication devices may have the same IP address) or the communication devices do not have an externally known IP-address. Then it is not possible to use the IP layer for addressing communications devices for management purposes and other purposes.
This situation could occur for example due the lack of public IP addresses, or in a network where the uniqueness of the IP addresses assigned to the communications devices cannot be ensured.
Hence, if there is no unique IP-address available for addressing such communications devices communications devices are not reachable at layer three and not able to be managed.